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Mounds View mayor running unopposed for second term

Mounds View Mayor Carol Mueller was the last to speak before the festivities could begin — food and a climbing wall and more — at the Aug. 21 ribbon cutting for Ralph Reeder Food Shelf’s new location in Mounds View.

A week earlier, Aug. 14, was the last day someone from Mounds View could file to challenge Mueller for mayor. No one else filed.

“Welcome home,” Mueller told the food shelf while fighting tears as she listed the many ways it would enrich the community, telling the story of a Mounds View family who made a donation to the shelf in the name of one of their deceased family members.

When she was done talking, the ribbon was cut and everyone got to run around and check out Ralph Reeder’s new digs, eat free food and enjoy a late-summer evening among the mossy moguls populating the intersection of Mounds View Boulevard and County Road I.

Mueller, drifting around and chatting with residents and various city, law enforcement and education officials, enjoyed the scene. “This is community building at its finest,” she said.

She’s nearing the end of her first term as mayor at the end of this year, a two-year stretch that’s had its tense moments to match moments of community bliss.

Before becoming mayor, Mueller was on the city council for a decade. She said she’s seen things go sideways in City Hall before. That’s what happens in city halls, sometimes.

But the view is a bit different from the middle chair on the council dais, gavel in hand.

“A big part of being mayor is running a meeting,” said Mueller.

A recent test came earlier this year, when the city’s residents were considering allowing a gun range to be built along mossy Mounds View Boulevard. After a few heated meetings, the council rejected the ordinance necessary for the range.

No matter how hot meetings got, Mueller maintained order. “Everyone has a voice,” she said looking back on it, almost like a mantra. Most of all, during those gun range meetings, in which the passions of some Mounds View residents were on full display, she remained composed, guiding the meetings with a steely, trusting hand.

It wasn’t until after Mueller was elected mayor in 2016 that she said she started getting a lot of calls from residents looking for specific answers to an array of questions big and small, looking to her for guidance.

Now, with a term under her belt and another one all but assured, Mueller is even more confident that she can provide more, better-informed guidance, while running passionate but respectful meetings.